The phrase “work smarter, not harder” is becoming easier to comply with as technology and cloud-based platforms help to simplify our day-to-day roles. Even people in the IT industry would rather outsource complex tasks that are more cost-effective to handle externally than within their own company.

A recent Six Degrees Group study surveyed IT professionals and found that 43 percent of individuals in IT roles do not have a clear understanding of how to manage compliance legislation data. Given the complexity of an IT professional’s job, one would think that they would be knowledgeable in that area; however, 52 percent of IT specialists admitted they would rather utilize a managed service provider (MSP) to manage data compliance than to do so internally.

“It is troubling that the majority of IT professionals surveyed have an insufficient understanding of how to make sure they are compliant. There’s clearly been a breakdown in communications between the compliance and IT departments, but considering the number of rules out there, perhaps it’s not surprising,” Campbell Williams, group strategy and marketing director of Six Degrees Group, said.

The survey was conducted at the IP Expo 2013 last year with 138 respondents being asked a variety of questions relating to the IT sector. Probably one of the more surprising revelations confirmed from the study is that 86 percent of IT professionals expressed concerns regarding where data is stored; an additional 35 percent that utilize an MSP internally admitted that they don’t actually know where the data is being stored.

“When a third of IT professionals using a managed services provider don’t know where their data is stored, how can they be sure that the data is safe? With businesses relying on cloud providers that might be operating anywhere in the world, it’s time to start asking these questions and make compliance and sovereignty a business priority,” Williams added.

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